uMnambithi, Nqweba are the renamed towns gazetted by Zizi Kodwa

Two towns are among a number of places to get new names after they were gazetted by sport, arts and culture minister Zizi Kodwa on Friday. 

Ladysmith, a town in Alfred Duma local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal where the famous music group Ladysmith Black Mambazo come from, has been renamed uMnambithi. 

The change of name followed a call to the community last year to participate in the voting for renaming the town from November 27 to December 1 last year. 

The naming process was co-ordinated by the KwaZulu-Natal sport, arts and culture department and the provincial geographic names committee. Members of the community were to choose between two names suggested, Ladysmith and uMnambithi. 

In terms of the South African Geographical Names Council Act, a geographical name approved or rejected by the minister must be published in the gazette.

Another town for which Kodwa approved a name change is Kirkwood in the Sundays River Valley municipality in the Eastern Cape. It will now be known as Nqweba.  

The municipality said with more than 12,000ha of citrus trees Nqweba is the hub of one of South Africa's largest citrus areas. It said the region exported about 8-million cartons of oranges, lemons, grapefruit and soft citrus to countries around the world each year. 

Kodwa also officially gazetted the name change of William Nicol Drive in Johannesburg to Winnie Mandela Drive. 

The road was renamed in September last year and it was the culmination of an initiative the city council embarked on in 2018 after her death to pay tribute to the liberation stalwart. 

Other names included in the gazette were the registration of existing settlements, a mountain and hill in the City of Mbombela in Mpumalanga. There was also a spelling correction for Makgoba Dam, which was previously known as Magoebaskloof Dam, in the Greater Tzaneen municipality in Limpopo. 

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